Multi channel tool

[Naib]

@romain

I’m fine editing the Placement Rule Area for LED1, but the same thing happens for all the other 20 LEDs… Is there a workaround? Is the tool still in development?

This is the benefit of a Release candidate to allow wider users to find issues so that they can be fixed for the full release.
Please file a bug so it can b fixed for the final release

I found a bug with the jobs feature and I need to check with rc2 before I file a bug

[romain]

Thanks, I tried creating the Rule Area for LED1.
Since each target layout also needs a Rule Area, this has to be copy-pasted 20 times and the sheet changed manually:

Also, is there an option to add it to the toolbar?

[gkeeth]

Make sure you’ve read the documentation. You do not need to copy paste anything 20 times or manually change the sheet.

PCB Editor | master | English | Documentation | KiCad

[mf_ibfeew]

Also, is there an option to add it to the toolbar?

Currently not (and I hope that the programmers refuse to place such a seldom used icon on the toolbar).

For the far future you could upvote the gitlab issue to introduce changeable toolbars: Feature Request: Able to customize the toolbar (#9852) · Issues · KiCad / KiCad Source Code / kicad · GitLab

[romain]

Thanks, the manual is quite clear:

In the board, each channel is represented with a rule area with its rules configured for placement. You need to add a rule area for each channel. One rule area will be the reference, containing manually placed and routed footprints. The other rule areas will have the reference placement and routing copied to them. Placement rule areas need the following settings configured in their properties:

• The options in the Placement tab should be configured to select the hierarchical sheet or component class that contains the channel’s components.

I acknowledge the 2 options:

1. Rely on the automatic Rule Area creation, which misses some tracks.
2. Draw a large enough Rule Area manually, then copy-paste it for each channel.

@mf_ibfeew

Currently not (and I hope that the programmers refuse to place such a seldom used icon on the toolbar).

You haven’t designed enough LED boards yet

[twl]

@romain

Rely on the automatic Rule Area creation, which misses some tracks.

Some hints:

• generate rule areas automatically for all channels
• edit the RA around the reference channel so that it encompasses all the tracks you want to be replicated. KiCad does not know which parts of the PCB to replicate unless you tell it, components are easy to infer because each component belongs to a particular hierarchical sheet or component class, for tracks or vias there’s no such direct information available.
• then repeat the layout, the shape of the reference RA should be replicated in all other channels. So no need to copy paste any RAs.

T.

[romain]

Yes, that is the first thing I tried:
LED1 with the edited RA, while LED2 is left untouched:

And that worked!

I must have been doing something wrong yesterday. Thanks for the help!

One caveat: the LED2 moved within its RA to accomodate the new size, despite LED2 being locked !! This is risky, I don’t think multichannel should override the lock. Sth to keep in mind !

[gkeeth]

@romain

I acknowledge the 2 options:

1. Rely on the automatic Rule Area creation, which misses some tracks.
2. Draw a large enough Rule Area manually, then copy-paste it for each channel.

Like Tom says, the rule area size/shape only matters for the reference channel. You can set that either by manually drawing the rule area to your desired shape and size, or by autogenerating the reference area and then editing it to the size and shape you want.

Then you can autogenerate all the target rule areas (or do it in the same step as autogenerating the reference rule area), and you do not need to care about the size and shape of them. Regardless, they will be updated to match the size and shape of the reference rule area when you do the repeat layout action.

Edit to respond to this:

@romain

One caveat: the LED2 moved within its RA to accomodate the new size, despite LED2 being locked !! This is risky, I don’t think multichannel should override the lock. Sth to keep in mind !

Uncheck the Remove locked items from target rule areas box

[romain]

@gkeeth

Uncheck the Remove locked items from target rule areas box

Hehe that almost did it!
Locking LED2 only prevented it from moving, bit the tracks were copied as-is, causing misalignment:

This is the screen capture, let me know if you have any suggestion:

[gkeeth]

I don’t really have a suggestion - if your components are in different places in different channels, then you can’t really repeat the routing and expect it to connect perfectly. You have some options, off the top of my head:

• Don’t lock the footprint to begin with, and move it to the desired place with the tracks after you repeat layout
• lock the footprint, uncheck the locked footprints checkbox, fix the routing afterwards
• lock the footprint, uncheck the locked footprints checkbox, uncheck the copy routing checkbox, then manually do all the routing
• if it’s only in a weird position in some channels, and the other channels all match, then you can repeat the routing to all the matching channels, then repeat the routing again for the different channels

Depends on how different they are and how many you need to do, I guess. Nothing says you need to keep all the channels as-is after you repeat the routing; you can use the repeat layout as a timesaver to get 90% of way there and then fix it up manually, if that works for your workflow.

Also, with regard to the button in the toolbar: I also think it’s unlikely it would be added to the toolbar before the toolbars are made customizable, but you can configure a hotkey for the action.